A bubble carried on the wind

Far below us I could hear a commotion as the first knights gathered in the courtyard. Some of them began running up the stairs, the clattering of their armor echoed through the tower. I couldn’t help but grow nervous as I heard them ascend.

Chiyo stood before the barrier crystal, rubbing her chin like an old man. “So, how are we supposed to destroy it? Should we just use the whip?”

It was worth a shot. It wasn’t like we had any other means at our disposal anyway. I raised the whip and started turning it above my head like a lasso. As it sped up it whirred at an increasingly higher pitch until it appeared to be a disc of golden light. With a flick of my wrist I let go and as if it had a mind of its own, Serpens wrapped around crystal like a snake enveloping its prey.

“Uh, what now?” Serpens tightly hugged the crystal, but more pressure was needed to destroy, or even crack the barrier.

“Let me try something.” Chiyo said as she suddenly embraced me from behind.

“Wuh, huh?” My face reddened at her sudden move. “Chiyo, what are you doing?”

“Shh, I need to concentrate.” Her hands ran over my arms, until they reached the snakeheads, their fangs still firmly embedded into my wrist. Her fingers continued upwards until she reached my hands, then I realized a certain power stirring within my body.

A warm feeling starting rising up through me. It started in the deepest pits of my stomach, then it slowly made its way up through my chest, into my extremities and finally softly bubbled into my brain. Unlike the previous times there was no electrical buzz, or exhilarating heat, just a warm and comfortable feeling, like coming back to a loving home after a tough day. 

The warm feeling spread all the way to my fingertips, and I could now feel Serpens as an extension of my body. I unleashed the warm bubbles inside me and placed them into the whip. I could feel the sensation traveling up the rope and extending itself to the very tip.

The snake-like appendage constricted the barrier crystal ever more tightly, and then the first crack appeared, running straight down the middle and through the black rune.

“It’s working! Keep up whatever you’re doing!” Chiyo cheered. “Come on!”

Cracks begin to fill the inside of the crystal until the pressure was too great, and it exploded into thousands of pieces. The only thing left standing was the rune at the center, which slowly disintegrated into fine ash. The barrier was dealt with. Finally the snakes let go of me, leaving bitemarks on my wrist.

Suddenly all the aches and pains in my body that I’d sustained in the fight against Amélie and Verus started acting up. Adrenaline can take you far, but once it wears off you might as well wish you were dead. My head throbbed and the wound on my chest became unbearable. In the next moment I was on the ground, I couldn’t even remember my fall. Chiyo was standing over me, but the worried look I expected was absent. Instead she started lecturing me.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep now! We’ve still got to get out of here. You can nap all you want when this city is far behind us.”

“Sorry, I guess everything that happened is catching up to me. You don’t look very worried, do you have some kind of plan? Those knights are going to be up here in a few minutes and we’ll be trapped like rats.”

“Don’t you worry, mr. Sleepy. You can place your faith in me!” She smugly grinned. The Chiyo I’d grown to love was back. I couldn’t help but smile at her remark.

She extended her hand towards me and I took it. She pulled me up and hugged me closely.

“This is important, hold onto me! You’d have a long fall ahead of you if you were to let go.”

Without any warning she lobbed herself over the tower’s edge, into the abyss.

Is this the plan you were so proud of? Lovers’ suicide?

Instead of a harrowing tumble to our deaths I was stunned when we slowly floated down from the palace, like we were trapped in a bubble carried on the wind.

“See, this isn’t half-bad, right? Y’know, you should really place more trust in me when I tell you to. You looked like you were about to pee yourself when we jumped!”

My cheeks turned hot and I had to turn my face away in shame. “Knock it off you, concentrate on not splattering us in the courtyard. I thought you were low on energy, what happened to that?”

Chiyo tilted her head. “I don’t know how any of this works, but when you started trying to destroy that crystal I suddenly got a rush of energy! It’s not enough to fight off a horde of knights, but manipulating our speed of descent is a piece of cake. Especially since I had a bit of practice when dropkicking that sugar addict at the cat café.”

Still in a tight embrace, we flew over the sprawling palace with Indestria’s canals sparkling in dawn’s sunshine before us. It was a breathtaking view. I could clearly see beyond the city walls and into the villages and lush meadows beyond. As we cleared the palace buildings, we made our landing in the front garden, where I could make out two figures coming from of a door. Or rather, one was supporting the other with much difficulty.

After softly touching down on the grass the figure urgently beckoned us. We should be running away, right? But I quickly recognized the man waving at us as Aldo and hurried over. He was supporting Elegast, who had a gnarly wound in his abdomen. The two left behind a trail of blooddrops as they went. Looking closer at Aldo, he wasn’t in the best shape either. There was a deep cut in his cheek that would certainly leave a scar, and his clothes were torn and bloodied. Aldo laid Elegast to rest on the white marble stairs in front of the palace. I could see a weak light still sparkling in his eyes.

Chiyo rushed over and put her hands on the wound. The wound stopped bubbling blood, but it didn’t heal fully. Elegast weakly pushed her hand aside when he noticed her overexerting herself.

“Don’t bother patching me up any further. You’ve done enough to put me out of mortal danger. But man, that witch hunter from the boonies sure gave us a hard time. Didn’t he, Aldo?”

Aldo sat down next to Elegast with a heavy sigh. “You’ve grown rusty after living a thief’s life for so long, old friend. In your prime you’d have single handedly sent him running with his tail between his legs.”

“Speaking of the hunter, what happened to him?” I wondered out loud.

“As the sun rose, he grew weaker and right as we were about to deliver the finishing blow on him, Elegast let down his guard and was injured. The wolf-man quickly escaped by jumping through a window afterwards. I’m sure he won’t be bothering you for a while after the beating we gave him.”

Chiyo crossed her arms and pouted. “I’d hope so! This is the second time we’ve run into that ghastly creep. I don’t want to see his face ever again. Hmph!”

“So the two of you took him out… You aren’t just normal thieves, right?” I could see hesitation in Elegast’s face when I said this. What was he hiding? The answer would excite me to no end.